The Austrian Airlines Group has made further strong improvements in the overall punctuality rate of its flights. Statistics just released by the AEA (Association of European Airlines, www.aea.be) for the first half-year of 2002 show that, of the 28 European airlines represented in the AEA, the Austrian Airlines Group rose to third place in terms of punctuality (AAG was fifth over the same period in 2001). Overall, 89.7 % of all 66.957 scheduled flights made by the Group were on time.
The Chief Executive Officer of AAG, Vagn Soerensen, made the following comment about the role of on-time performance in the half-year report: “Punctuality is undoubtedly one of the most important criteria that customers use to judge the quality of a network airline. Our punctuality management department is therefore of absolutely central importance. It enables us to analyse and harmonise Group production processes on a continuous basis.”

The organisational unit to which Mr Soerensen was referring works to supervise and optimise the production processes that need to function seamlessly if a flight is to take off on time. These include planning, the loading of catering services, the work of the station and airport, technical maintenance intervals, crewboarding, cleaning and other services. The core duties of the Austrian Airlines Group’s punctuality management department is to set and monitor precise agreed objectives with the units responsible for the prompt provision of the various services.
Passengers also make a crucial contribution to the Austrian Airline Group’s ability to take off on time, by checking in at the airport approximately 90 minutes before departure on short and medium haul flights and at least two hours before departure for long haul.
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